The tongue-in-cheek film, which was withdrawn from circulation hours after the release amid a storm of protest, showed among the rest a classroom full of children, two of whom explode when detonated by the teacher for refusing to take part in an energy-saving program.

The video, meant to convince people to cut their carbon emissions by ten per cent starting this year, was taken down from the 10:10 website and removed from all cinemas where organizers planned to show it.

The short film was scripted by Richard Curtis, the British writer behind 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' and ‘Love Actually’; the video led to complaints that it was 'sick' and 'needlessly violent'.

The charity ActionAid, which originally backed the idea, said it was 'absolutely appalled'.

But Richard Curtis said, “When you try to be funny with a serious subject, it's obviously risky”.

Meteorologist and astrophysicist Piers Corbyn has joined the chorus of people calling the film “utterly disgusting” and “emotional blackmail” aimed at forcing people to believe in climate change, which he says is not occurring.

“Suppose these images were directed against any ethnic or religious minority, like black people, gays or Jews, then there would be an absolute international uproar. In fact, this man Curtis wouldn’t have even thought of making the film. But, somehow, he thinks he can get away with it by attacking the children of people or those people who happen to disbelieve in their fraudulent science and the evidence they cite,” Corbyn said.